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(Inspired by the recent
assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya)
There's
no shortage of outrage on the Left. Plenty of marches and manifestos to go
along with the myriad calls to change this and take back that. Toss in the
occasional fighting words and the intermittent flirtation with property
damage and the Left typically does just enough to get itself effectively
demonized by the mainstream... thus making it that much easier for the
police to get away with swinging their nightsticks at the next
"anti-globalization" protest.
So, here's my question: What would those who
identify as leftists do if one of their high profile icons were openly
eliminated? For the sake of argument, let's say the U.S. government (or
one of its proxies) -- with the full support of the corporate media --
overtly did away with Michael Moore for his political beliefs and
anti-corporate activism.
(Let me clarify something before you send
off all those e-mails telling me Moore is a poser, fake, Democrat,
opportunist, egomaniac, gatekeeper, whatever. I'm neither endorsing nor
condemning Moore here; I'm simply recognizing his current status. In a
society as heavily conditioned as ours -- a society that defines the
"left" to include both Hillary Clinton and Ward Churchill -- Michael Moore
might as well be Che fuckin' Guevara. In other words, choosing the
nation's best-known "rebel" as a target would be nothing less than the
government declaring war on dissidents of all stripes.)
So, what would the American left wing do if Moore were deported like Emma
Goldman, Charlie Chaplin, and (almost) John Lennon? What if he was
railroaded, denied a fair trial, and imprisoned like, say, Mumia Abu-Jamal
or Leonard Peltier? What if he was to be publicly executed even in the
face of massive protests, e.g. Sacco and Vanzetti, Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg, Tookie Williams, or Ken Saro Wiwa of Nigeria? How about an
assassination; a straight-out hit job along the lines of Fred Hampton,
Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, or even Patrice Lumumba and Salvador
Allende?
Pick your poison; it doesn't matter how he's removed. The question
remains: What if the U.S. government (or one of its proxies) -- with the
full support of the corporate media -- transparently eliminated Michael
Moore for his political beliefs and activism? Would we see anything more
than a flood of articles, blog posts, t-shirts, and open letters from Sean
Penn? Would the reaction go beyond asking the state for permission to
protest and agreeing beforehand how many of those protestors will consent
to be arrested? Would Bob Dylan re-write "Who Killed Davey Moore?" and
have Bono sing it outside the Pentagon?
If that's the case, perhaps emboldened by the ease with which Moore's
eradication was achieved, the government might then toss Noam Chomsky,
Derrick Jensen, and Cynthia McKinney into prison for treason. More
protests, more outrage, more fundraisers. Undaunted, Corporate America
pulls all advertising dollars from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and
forces their shows off the air. In response, 500 new blogs emerge and the
"Free Jon Stewart" website registers nearly a million hits a day until it
is hacked and removed.
Shortly thereafter, the government might start spying on American citizens
and detaining prisoners without pressing charges while corporations ravage
the earth in pursuit of profit, wiping out entire eco-systems in the
process. Oops... sorry; they already did all that without being stopped.
Marveling at the relative lack of resistance, the powers-that-be may
initiate mass arrests of suspected domestic eco-terrorists, culminating in
the bombing of several ELF and/or ALF safe houses, leaving dozens dead?
(Not possible, you say? Ask the folks at MOVE.) We know what the general
public would say... the same thing they say every time a new "security
precaution" is instituted: "If it makes us safer, I'm all for it." But how
do you think lefty activists and thinkers would react? Would they/could
they do anything to stop the onslaught?
This is not a facetious question, an accusation, or an ill-advised attempt
at satire. I'm genuinely curious: What do you think radicals,
progressives, liberals, anarchists, socialists, communists, and all such
fellow travelers would do if the U.S. government (or one of its proxies)
-- with the full support of the corporate media -- blatantly killed
Michael Moore for his political beliefs and activism?
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